That’s the question: how do I change one measure’s metre without changing following measures? I tried selecting the entire stack using the thing at the top (don’t know what it is called, but it allows adding, deleting & selecting of measures)?
I found an unintuitive way, which is to place a time sig in the next measure and then go back and change the focus measure. Is that the official way, so to speak?
Yes, when you insert a time signature, Dorico will re-bar the music up to the next time signature. If you only want the time signature to change for a single bar, put a “stopper” time signature in to prevent Dorico from rebarring further music.
Good, thanks. Forgive the trivial question, but what is that top line called?
The System Track.
I am here because of Finale’s recent shutting down and their partnering with Dorico. This is an incredibly basic feature to insert a new time signature and it is frustrating and disappointing that it is not easily accomplished in Dorico, the “advanced” music notation software. Guys, what gives? Finale, you could choose your meter and select a measure range that it affects, so you could easily insert a quick meter change without rebarring the rest of your music. Seems like a pretty “basic” feature that an “advanced” software lacks.
Welcome to the forum.
Don’t knock it until you understand it. Dorico’s approach to meter and bars is incredibly powerful and flexible.
Just enter your new meter where you want it to start and change it back (or to something else) later. Dorico will sort out all the re-barring for you. (One note of caution. If there are already later meter changes, you may end up with an incomplete bar if the maths doesn’t work out. But these can be resolved).
Yeah… this thread doesn’t (so far) mention the method for restricting the range of re-barring, but there is one. (I’m not in front of Dorico right now, so can’t call to mind the exact details.)
What I had to do was:
I’m starting in 3/4. I want to change one measure of 4/4 and go back to 3/4 (I already have some music afterwards that can’t move about).
I added a single beat through the system track to the measure in question. Then I could make that 4/4 and the measure afterwards 3/4. That did it, everything was where it should be.
My question: surely there is a better way? Am I missing it? This is super clunky! I appreciate you, I appreciate this community for being supportive and helpful. My beef is with the software.
I believe a solution lies in using Insert mode (I) together with a stop position. Here’s a link to that section in the manual, to see if I’m addressing your need:
Stop position did not do anything for me. I did figure something out:
I add a “courtesy” 3/4 where it switches back. I then activate insert mode and add a 4/4 before that 3/4. Everything stayed the way it should.
This is great that there is a way for it to work. It is troubling that this software is so clunky that its own users don’t know how its tools work.
Well, please don’t use me as a basis for determining what all users know! There are people here with far more wisdom than I.
It’s been such a frenetic week with welcoming our new Finale friends that I’m just trying to pitch in and do my part when I think I can at least point someone in the right direction. Sorry to have failed and wasted your time.
Glad you found a solution, though, and don’t be surprised if you hear a better response soon!
It’s not you. The answers above you from Spreadbury himself and others have also referenced this Insert Stop Point on the System Track and it does… nothing. You’re great.
It is impossible to be precise without seeing the file. We are all using guesswork because there are a lot of subtleties that come into play.
(Edit: Also the four different Insert Scopes are a relatively recent addition to Dorico’s armoury, and many of the early adopters remain content to use alternative approaches that achieve the same end result)
Hi @dacronboy8 , insert mode has several scopes. To change a bar “length” when you have already music written afterwards that you don’t want to change, you need to set a stopper time signature where the music should continue with the previous time signature, (thank you Daniel for the correction) then use the scope called Global Adjustment of Current Bar, then insert your new meter change new notes/rests, or delete notes/rests, where desired in the current bar (thank you @Mark_Johnson for the correction) (and deactivate insert mode after that 
).
The stop position (the red bar) is also useful in some situations.
If you would like to share an example of what your situation is, we can give you extreme precise steps to obtain what you want (until you will certainly better understand the power of the functionalities of Dorico, and , sorry to say, you will try to acclimatise to the very friendly and help oriented atmosphere of this Forum 
)
I’ve dug through the forums that have asked adjacent questions and done experimenting with stop positions. I have not been able to recreate the suggestions I’ve received and I found a reply from Spreadbury saying the use of stop positions was unnecessary, to add to the confusion.
The way I’ve managed to make this work is by adding a beat to a bar through either the system track or the bar popover, then changing the time signature to incorporate this new beat. I can accept this as a feature of Dorico’s DNA, but I must say it is unintuitive musically.
It seems that way because you’re used to thinking of notes locked into measures as in Finale. The even more basic fact is that Dorico doesn’t deal with measures like that at all. Barlines are more like guidelines, and notes flow across them, more like a midi sequencer. This has tremendous advantages for editing. It’s what I wished for and never got with Finale or Sibelius in over 25 years.
The easiest way to change the meter of one bar only is:
Result: The meter of that bar changes to accommodate the edits, and the prevailing meter is automatically added to the following bar. Turn off insert mode when you’re done.
I sort of object for irrational reasons to being called Spreadbury. Obviously, it’s my name, but it gives me unpleasant flashbacks to my school days – even my college tutor didn’t address me by my first name until I graduated. No, I didn’t grow up in Dickensian London, I just look that way.
Anyway, please call me Daniel. Everybody else does – at least to my face. Who knows what they say when I’m not around…
In this kind of situation where you want to change meter for one bar, I’d probably be tempted to do it by adding “stopper” time signature in the bar following the one where I want to change the meter, then ensure Insert mode is activated, and then insert the new time signature in the bar in the middle. With Insert mode activated, Dorico will ensure that the newly-inserted meter will end up the right length by adding or removing time; without Insert mode switched on, it will not add or remove time.
One common criticism of Dorico is that in this way it’s too easy to end up with the wrong number of beats in a bar, and we are alive to that. We have plans for how to minimise the risk of this, and to help you identify when it has happened, in future versions.
It was meant only to refer to the higher-power Creator of the program, not as a menacing teacher.
I tried that out. I see what you mean. If I change it to 4/4 with my buffer 3/4 it does show up graphically but missing a beat, and with insert mode on it adds the proper value.
So does the insert mode stopper in the System Track do anything for this situation? I did see that you mentioned in another thread that you wouldn’t use it for this, but other users seem to think it is the way.
Thank you Daniel.
I’m editing to add a positive: while there is some clunkiness (what notation software lacks that?) I so far do really appreciate that everything graphically seems to be able to be treated as a graphic entity untied to musical parameters. Like in this situation, I can make it show 4/4 but still the measure can have 3 beats and there is no error message standing in my way. That is pretty powerful and a big step above Finale.
Hi @dacronboy8 , referring to the guidelines…
The faster way to receive a precise walkthrough to solve your issue is, in my experience, to share an example 
I don’t often feel as if I have any kind of higher power, but thank you!
I don’t think it’s how I’d approach this, certainly. Another way of extending the length of the bar would be to use the Insert mode scope “extend current bar” (which you get to by cycling through the scoped with Alt+I, or right-clicking on the Insert mode button in the toolbox on the left in Write mode). You can then simply add beats to an existing bar, and per the options on the Insert Mode page of Library > Note Input Options, you can specify whether Dorico should update the time signature. (You still don’t need the Insert mode stop line in this case, because you’re extending one bar.)
Lots of ways to skin a cat. But I think in this case I’d go for the stopper approach.